Carbon fiber holds great promise for next-generation vehicle design, both civilian and defense, thanks to unmatched strength-to-weight characteristics. This is especially true in aviation, where weight is always of the essence. However, carbon fiber has historically faced many barriers to adoption: it’s expensive, production is overwhelmingly manual and slow, and attempting to bend fibers to fit curved shapes invariably causes defects. Until now. For the past five years, iCOMAT has been working furiously to unlock carbon fiber’s potential, and their patented Rapid Tow Shearing process enables defect-free shaping - opening the door for many more carbon fiber composite components at unprecedented scale and cost/production efficiencies. iCOMAT has achieved remarkable milestones over a short time, and their team comprises some of the greatest minds in composites production and manufacturing. We could not be more excited to lead their $22.5 million Series A, along with the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF). Additional investors include Syensqo Ventures and earlier investor Velocity.Partners Venture Capital. Congratulations Evangelos Zympeloudis, Keith Fairbrass, Ben Olivier, Olivia Stodieck, Rony Seamons, and friends! In today’s blog, 8VC’s Alex Moore and Justin Rose share their perspectives on iCOMAT’s breakthroughs, and why this is such a compelling company from an investment perspective: https://lnkd.in/gG2ZbFbJ And don’t miss Bloomberg’s coverage (https://lnkd.in/gD49th5u), as well as iCOMAT’s press release (https://lnkd.in/dPPqEHae)
Amazing - well done team and looking forward to working with everyone to make this happen.
This is such an exciting milestone for iCOMAT, and we're thrilled to join 8VC and NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) portfolio. Onwards with the next phase of our mission
Good news, such a solution will facilitate production and speed up the lamination process, especially for 3D machine lamination.
Thrilled to see this come to life this week! We look forward to seeing what's next for iCOMAT.
It's really amazing to have 8VC support and join iCOMAT! Really looking forward to working with Alex, Justin and the 8VC team in taking iCOMAT to the next level. We are just getting started!
Excellent opportunity to work with such respected and innovative Investors as we further develop and unlock the potential of this technology. I am extremely proud to be working and sharing this journey with such a terrific set of Investors and Team Members.
Interesting business and tech. iCOMAT let’s discuss auto applications.
Great investment. Congrats
Head of Incubation @RCA | PhD, MBA | Chartered Engineer | Integrating Business, Engineering and Science to Drive Technology Commercialisation
2moI think iComat success opens the door for other composite material companies to tap into the private investment sector. Historically, composite companies struggled to raise private funds and relied heavily on grant funds due to associated risks, high sunk costs and unproven business models. The composite industry, both materials and manufacturing, is known for its reliance on the tacit knowledge, which impact the internal rate of return (IRR) of the investment. Obviously, the sustainability mandates have helped as the carbon fibre is a key enabler in the shift to green economy. It’s good to see investors’ confidence has risen and deals have started to emerge